Biblical Relationships: Learning from the Best and the Worst

Transcription

1 Biblical Relationships: Learning from the Best and the Worst Practical...or Prophetic A Relational Journey of a Different Kind The Gospel of Ruth 26 August 2012 I. Practical...or Prophetic A. Biblical Context the time of the Judges In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit. (Judges 21:25) 1. After Israel had entered the Promised Land and Joshua has died... (Judges 1:1, 2:6-23) Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died at the age of a hundred and ten... After that whole generation had been gathered to their ancestors, another generation grew up who knew neither the LORD nor what he had done for Israel. (Judges 2:8, 10b) 2. Before Saul is anointed the first king of Israel (I Samuel 8:1 10:1) B. Holy Hospitality - Mosaic Laws 1. Foreigners, Widows and Orphans (Exodus 22:21-24; Deuteronomy 27:19) Do not mistreat or oppress a foreigner, for you were foreigners in Egypt. Do not take advantage of the widow or the fatherless. If you do and they cry out to me, I will certainly hear their cry. (Exodus 22:21-23) 2. Gleaning (Leviticus 19:9-10; Deuteronomy 24:19-22) When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest...leave them for the poor and the foreigner. I am the LORD your God. (Leviticus 19:9, 10b) 3. Protecting the Family Legacy (Deuteronomy 25:5-9; Leviticus 25:23-28) If brothers are living together and one of them dies without a son, his widow must not marry outside the family. Her husband s brother shall take her and marry her...the first son she bears shall carry on the name of the dead brother so that his name will not be blotted out from Israel. (Deuteronomy 25:5-6) If one of your fellow Israelites falls into poverty and is forced to sell some family land, then a close relative [kinsman-redeemer] should buy it back for him. (Leviticus 25:25, NLT) II. Outsider...or Insider A. Israel & Moab Enmity and Suspicion Between Two Cultures No Ammonite or Moabite or any of their descendants may enter the assembly of the LORD, not even in the tenth generation...they hired Balaam son of Beor from Pethor in Aram Naharaim to pronounce a curse on you (Deuteronomy 23:3, 4b)

2 B. Naomi - A Female Job Why, O Lord, do you stand far off? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble? (Psalm 10:1) C. The gospel of Ruth good news for the marginalized 1. Focus of Luke s gospel the haves and the have nots 2. A New, Inclusive Community of Faith (Ephesians 2:13-22) But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations... Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God s people and also members of his household... (Ephesians 2:13-15a, 19) D. The gospel of Ruth & Pentecost III. Romantic...or Sacrificial Love The LORD bless [Boaz]! Naomi said to her daughter-in-law. He has not stopped showing his kindness [hesed] to the living and the dead. (Ruth 2:20) A. Hesed (Ruth 1:8, 2:20, 3:10) 1. English kindness, mercy, loyalty, loving-kindness, steadfast, unfailing 2. Hebrew...a strong Hebrew word that sums up the ideal lifestyle for God s people. It s the way God intended for human beings to live together from the beginning...an active, selfless, sacrificial caring for one another that goes against the grain of our fallen natures...someone in desperate need and a second person who possesses the power and the resources to make a difference. Hesed is driven not by duty or legal obligation, but by a bone-deep commitment a loyal, selfless love that motivates a person to do voluntarily what no one has a right to expect or ask of them...the kind of love we find most fully expressed in Jesus. (p. 115, Gospel of Ruth, James) B. Privilege that is Prophetic 1. Boaz and the nameless kinsman-redeemer Then I cannot redeem it because I might endanger my own estate. You redeem it yourself. I cannot do it. (Ruth 4:6) Application "...we were not in charge of the journey we were on, but we held onto the belief that somehow God's good purposes for us were bound up in everything along the way..." from the Gospel of Ruth: Loving God Enough to Break the Rules, by Carolyn Custis James

3 Biblical Relationships: Learning from the Best and the Worst Practical...or Prophetic A Relational Journey of a Different Kind The Gospel of Ruth 26 August 2012 A Family Tragedy 1 In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land. So a man from Bethlehem in Judah, together with his wife and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab. 2 The man s name was Elimelek, his wife s name was Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Kilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem, Judah. And they went to Moab and lived there. 3 Now Elimelek, Naomi s husband, died, and she was left with her two sons. 4 They married Moabite women, one named Orpah and the other Ruth. After they had lived there about ten years, 5 both Mahlon and Kilion also died, and Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband. Naomi Decides to Return Home 6 When Naomi heard in Moab that the LORD had come to the aid of his people by providing food for them, she and her daughters-in-law prepared to return home from there. 7 With her two daughters-inlaw she left the place where she had been living and set out on the road that would take them back to the land of Judah. 8 Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, Go back, each of you, to your mother s home. May the LORD show you kindness, as you have shown kindness to your dead husbands and to me. 9 May the LORD grant that each of you will find rest in the home of another husband. Then she kissed them goodbye and they wept aloud 10 and said to her, We will go back with you to your people. 11 But Naomi said, Return home, my daughters It is more bitter for me than for you, because the LORD s hand has turned against me! 14 At this they wept aloud again. Then Orpah kissed her mother-inlaw goodbye, but Ruth clung to her. 15 Look, said Naomi, your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her.

4 16 But Ruth replied, Don t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. 17 Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me. 18 When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her. Naomi and Ruth Arrive in Bethlehem 19 So the two women went on until they came to Bethlehem. When they arrived in Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them, and the women exclaimed, Can this be Naomi? 20 Don t call me Naomi, she told them. Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter. 21 I went away full, but the LORD has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? The LORD has afflicted me; the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me. Gleaning in the Grain Field 2 Now Naomi had a relative on her husband s side, a man of standing from the clan of Elimelek, whose name was Boaz. 2 And Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, Let me go to the fields and pick up the leftover grain behind anyone in whose eyes I find favor. Naomi said to her, Go ahead, my daughter. 17 So Ruth gleaned in the field until evening. Then she threshed the barley she had gathered, and it amounted to about an ephah. 18 She carried it back to town, and her mother-in-law saw how much she had gathered Her mother-in-law asked her, Where did you glean today? Where did you work? Blessed be the man who took notice of you! Then Ruth told her mother-in-law about the one at whose place she had been working. The name of the man I worked with today is Boaz, she said. 20 The LORD bless him! Naomi said to her daughter-in-law. He has not stopped showing his kindness to the living and the dead. She added, That man is our close relative; he is one of our kinsmanredeemers. 21 Then Ruth the Moabite said, He even said to me, Stay with my workers until they finish harvesting all my grain. 22 Naomi said to Ruth her daughter-in-law, It will be good for you, my daughter, to go with the women who work for him, because in someone else s field you might be harmed. 23 So Ruth stayed close to the women of Boaz to glean until the barley and wheat harvests were finished. And she lived with her mother-in-law.

5 Ruth and Boaz 3 One day Ruth s mother-in-law Naomi said to her, My daughter, I must find a home for you, where you will be well provided for. 5 I will do whatever you say, Ruth answered. 6 So she went down to the threshing floor and did everything her mother-in-law told her to do. 1. In each of these sections, what can you observe from the scripture about Naomi? About Ruth? About God? 2. What can you reasonably infer from the scriptures about the relationship between Naomi and Ruth? 3. How does their relationship change over time? What are the key transition points in this relationship?

6 At the City Gate 4 Meanwhile Boaz went up to the town gate and sat down there just as the kinsman-redeemer he had mentioned came along. Boaz said, Come over here, my friend, and sit down. So he went over and sat down. 2 Boaz took ten of the elders of the town and said, Sit here, and they did so. 3 Then he said to the kinsman-redeemer, Naomi, who has come back from Moab, is selling the piece of land that belonged to our relative Elimelek. 4 I thought I should bring the matter to your attention and suggest that you buy it in the presence of these seated here and in the presence of the elders of my people. If you will redeem it, do so. But if you will not, tell me, so I will know. For no one has the right to do it except you, and I am next in line. I will redeem it, he said. 5 Then Boaz said, On the day you buy the land from Naomi, you also acquire Ruth the Moabite, the dead man s widow, in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property. 6 At this, the kinsman-redeemer said, Then I cannot redeem it because I might endanger my own estate. You redeem it yourself. I cannot do it. Naomi Gains a Son...your daughter-in-law, who loves you and who is better to you than seven sons, has given him birth. 16 Then Naomi took the child in her arms and cared for him. 17 The women living there said, Naomi has a son! And they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.